The present invention relates to a rock drilling apparatus including a pressure fluid driven rock drilling machine having a percussive motor and a rotation chuck arranged in a housing, a drill rod connectable to said housing and having a drill bit and a shank, and a tube surrounding said rod, which tube has a rear adapter non-rotatably attached to the tube, the percussive action needed for the drilling being transmitted from the percussive motor to the drill bit by said drill rod.
When using a conventional rock drilling apparatus with a rotating drill rod there is often a risk that the operator's clothes or other things might come into contact with the drill rod and then, due to the rotation, be twisted around it. To avoid this, different arrangements have been proposed according to which the drill rod is equipped with a protective shielding which prevents direct contact with the rotating rod. These arrangements have, however, been of little use in practice since they are too complicated to handle and also require too much space.